You likely have patients in your practice with prediabetes, a common but treatable, condition found in 79 million Americans. A pilot project now aims to keep prediabetes from becoming type 2 diabetes. Using evidence-based lifestyle coaching, the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) was designed to help local communities nationwide with efforts to delay or prevent the progression of prediabetes.

Now, Indianapolis-area physicians can refer people who have prediabetes to a DPP at the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis. A Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation grant is paying for at-risk people over age 65 to attend evidence-based diabetes prevention programs in Indianapolis and 17 communities across the country.

The one-year grant program is aimed at improving diet and physical activity and achieving moderate weight loss. The DPP is based on a program that has been shown to reduce the number of new cases of type 2 diabetes among people with prediabetes by 58 percent in adults ages 18-60, and by 71 percent in adults over the age of 60.*

In 2008, researchers at IU School of Medicine demonstrated that a DPP could be implemented by a community YMCA, rather than clinicians – increasing the opportunity for cost-effective use and spread of the DPP.

Physician referral pilotThe AMA has engaged IU Health Physicians in a six-month pilot project, during which AMA staff will collaborate with approximately 200 primary care physician practices to create a referral process that works well across different types of practices.

Once the pilots are completed mid-2014 in Indianapolis and elsewhere, the AMA will expand the project to more cities, creating more clinical-community linkages.

In partnership with the YMCA the pilot project seeks to:

Increase education and awareness of prediabetes to promote screening by physicians of those at risk

Increase physician referrals of people at risk for diabetes to the DPP at their local YMCA

Create a feedback loop so the patient’s experience at their YMCA becomes integrated into the physician’s care plan

Encourage physician-patient shared decision-making

The AMA is also collaborating with insurers on strategies for expanded coverage of evidence-based services shown to prevent type 2 diabetes, including those in a non-clinical setting.